Top Originators 2013: #1 Company with Most Ranked Originators

Guaranteed Rate#1 Company with Most Ranked Originators Originators on Top Dollar Volume List: 41 Originators on Most Loans Closed List: 19

This past year was business as usual for Guaranteed Rate — which is to say that business was great. With 41 originators on Scotsman Guide’s Top Dollar Volume list, Guaranteed Rate placed more producers in this year’s rankings than any other company, and that success adds up to big-production numbers.

In 2013, Guaranteed Rate’s ranked originators closed nearly $4.3 billion in more than 12,500 loans. Their aggregated volume was a fairly even split between purchases (48 percent) and refinances (52 percent). “We were really happy with how things turned out last year,” says Victor Ciardelli, president and CEO of Guaranteed Rate. “We focused on our purchase business for quite a while, and it really paid off.”

Guaranteed Rate’s platform prevents loan officers from getting bogged down by time-intensive tasks, Ciardelli says. With that, the company’s loan officers can focus on what they do best: loan origination. “Eighty percent of a loan officer’s time is usually doing task-oriented work and 20 percent of the time is being a rainmaker. In our world, we completely flip that,” Ciardelli says.

With such a large amount of total volume, it may come as no surprise that Guaranteed Rate’s ranked producers closed a wide array of loan types this past year. Ciardelli points to a particular niche, however. “We have consistently focused on jumbo, and jumbo is really a big part of our business right now,” he says. “It’s about 25 to 30 percent of everything we lock every day.”

Ciardelli also notes that this product offering and the company’s dedication to its work environment are key factors for its success in recruitment.

“What I love is building the culture and building an organization that does good not only for our customers but for our employees,” Ciardelli says. “That’s the most rewarding part.”